This week, Dina Perrine joins me to share what happened when she attended the first-ever Magic House Retreat in Lisbon, Portugal. Her experience was profound — and honestly, I think you'll want to hear every word of it. Dina came home with something she didn't expect: a completely new relationship with pleasure. She learned that pleasure is nourishing, that numbing is not the same thing, and that activating her senses is the pathway to feeling genuinely good in her body. She also healed her plantar fasciitis. (Yes, really.) What she says about pleasure versus numbing will shift how you think about why you reach for alcohol — and what you actually need instead. If you've been curious about the Magic House, this episode is your inside look. Grab your spot at the April 2027 Magic House Retreat: https://www.angelamascenik.com/magichousefounderscircleFollow Dina on Instagram @latinadina About Angela Mascenik Angela Mascenik is a certified stop over-drinking coach with nearly eight years of experience helping high-achieving women change their relationship with alcohol. She is the host of Stop Over-Drinking and Start Living — almost 400 episodes — and the founder of Alive AF!, a monthly membership for women doing this work together. She also runs The Magic House, a retreat center in Lisbon, Portugal, where women gather for immersive sober retreats focused on the body, the mind, and real transformation. Her approach is compassionate, shame-free, and rooted in the belief that you don't have to want sobriety to want a better life.

Slipped back into drinking after real progress? Shame is keeping you stuck. Angela Mascenik breaks down why — and how to stop hiding and start again. An episode for the woman who changed her relationship with alcohol, lost her footing, and is now too embarrassed to ask for help again. If you've been working on your drinking — maybe with a stop drinking coach, inside a sober community, or on your own — and you had real progress, and then you slipped back into old patterns, this episode is for you. Not the version of you that had it together. The version of you right now, who is quietly struggling and convinced she has too much to explain before she can ask for help again. That shame? It has a name. And once you understand what it's doing to your brain, it loses some of its power. Changing your relationship with alcohol is not a straight line. Most women who do this work, whether they're aiming for sobriety, cutting back, or simply drinking with more intention, will hit a stretch where old habits creep back in. That's not a character flaw. That's behavior change. And it's exactly what this episode is about. What makes the slip harder than it needs to be isn't the drinking. It's the silence that follows. Women who have worked with a coach, attended a sober retreat, or been part of a community like Alive AF! often find that coming back after a slip feels impossible. Not because help isn't available, they know it is. Not because they don't want it, they do. But because shame has convinced them they have to earn their way back first. In this episode, Angela Mascenik — certified stop over-drinking coach and host of Stop Over-Drinking and Start Living — breaks down exactly what is happening in your brain when a slip turns into a spiral, why shame is the real barrier between you and getting better, and why the woman who comes back is not starting over. She's picking up. This Episode Is For You If: You've tried to quit drinking or cut back and had real success, then slipped You've worked with a stop drinking coach and are embarrassed to reach out again You're in a sober community or sobriety program and have gone quiet You attended a women's sober retreat and feel like you let the experience down You know what to do and you're still not doing it, and shame is why You're a high-achieving woman who is exhausted from breaking promises to herself around alcohol If you’re ready to explore private coaching or attending a Magic House Retreat in Lisbon to transform your relationship with alcohol at a deeper level, you can book a Clarity Call here: https://www.angelamascenik.com/claritycallAnd check out the last 3 spots in the May Magic House Retreat in Lisbon!https://www.angelamascenik.com/magichousefounderscircleAbout Angela MascenikAngela Mascenik is a certified stop over-drinking coach with nearly eight years of experience helping high-achieving women change their relationship with alcohol. She is the host of Stop Over-Drinking and Start Living — with almost 400 episodes — and the founder of Alive AF!, a monthly membership for women doing this work together. She also runs The Magic House, a retreat center in Lisbon, Portugal, where women gather for immersive sober retreats focused on the body, the mind, and real transformation.Her approach is compassionate, shame-free, and rooted in the belief that you don't have to want sobriety to want a better life.

Your body doesn't reach for the wine because you're weak. It reaches because it's never learned that discomfort is survivable. That changes today.In this episode, I share the story of Amy — a high-achieving client who came to The Magic House retreat in Lisbon for the photos and left with something she didn't expect: a completely different relationship with her phone, her body, and the quiet moments she used to fill with scrolling. No decision. No willpower. It just happened.That's what building a regulated nervous system actually looks like. And in this episode, you'll learn exactly how to start building yours.You'll learn: Why women who over-drink tend to be disconnected from their own bodies — and what the research says about the link between body awareness and alcohol cravings What interoception is and why training it is one of the most powerful things you can do to stop over-drinking How embodied practices like breathwork, forest bathing, mindfulness, yoga, and sound healing work — and why they have nothing to do with relaxation The simple grounding practice Angela uses at every retreat that you can do anywhere, starting today Why your nervous system can't be talked into feeling safe — and what to do instead If you're a woman who drinks more than you want to, finds herself reaching for a glass at 5pm almost automatically, or has tried every top-down strategy and still can't seem to make it stick — this episode is for you.No labels. No shame. No telling you to quit forever. Just the science, the story, and a place to start.This is the Stop Over-Drinking and Start Living podcast with certified stop over-drinking coach Angela Mascenik. New episodes every week for high-achieving women who want to change their relationship with alcohol, feel their feelings, and actually live their lives.Find Angela at angelamascenik.com | Learn about The Magic House Retreat Center in Lisbon, Portugal at https://www.angelamascenik.com/magichousefounderscircle

This week I share a small bit about what happened at The Magic House in Lisbon during my first retreat.One woman shared that here cognitive firing came back online and that for the past year or 2 she couldn't recall some of her vocabulary that she prided herself on.. and it came back online.One woman shared she felt like a shell of herself when she first arrived and at the end she felt whole and alive and like herself again.One woman realized she was prioritizing everyone else and wasn't listening to her own needs and learned how to do that this week.There were first yoga practices, sound baths and massages.There was adventure and integration.Stepping away from our day to day lets us see what is and isn't working and where we might need to pay attention more.Allowing yourself to tell yourself the truth, learn how to be in your body to access important wisdom, and being surrounded by beautiful souls all doing it together is transformative.Also, having a private chef and not having to do any chores helps too!Magic happens at The Magic House Retreat Center and you definitley want to be a part of it!!Join us in May or April 2027.Angela Mascenik is a certified coach who helps women stop over-drinking and has created an elevated bohemian sanctuary in a century old building in Lisbon, where women come to release their own magic without substances clouding their true needs and desires. Click the link to get more info about the Lisbon Magic House:https://www.angelamascenik.com/magichousefounderscircle

Please enjoy this podcast REWIND- Frustration As Fuel This episode I dive into how you can channel your frustration to stop over-drinking to get you to take actions you haven't been willing to take. Frustration can be a great emotion to initiate permanent changes if you know how to identify which actions will move you forward or keep you stuck. Angela Mascenik, certified stop over-drinking coach, breaks what it really takes to create lasting change from the inside out with your relationship with alcohol, every week in the Stop Over-drinking and Start Living podcast. If you’re successful, responsible, and “high functioning” on the outside but privately exhausted from managing alcohol in your head, you'll resonate with the helpful tips in this episode to cut back or take a break from alcohol. Click the link to get more info about the Lisbon Magic House:https://www.angelamascenik.com/magichousefounderscircle

This week's podcast is a must listen if you have been making drink plans or zero drink plans and not following them.First, I'm sharing how I'm self-coaching myself through the final days before I welcome my first group to The Magic House Retreat Center in Lisbon, Portugal! And you can apply this to any project or big event in your life that might be happening.Then, I share a tactic that will help you interrupt the automatica behavior of drinking off plan, even when you have the best intentions to stick to your plan in the morning.The idea is that we need to pro-actively check in with ourselves and Stop - Notice- Process BEFORE the urge or the chatter hits at the end of the day.SNP {Stop - Notice - Process} is my signature interruption technique to handle urges or interrupt behavior when we have strong feelings or desires to do drink or take unwanted actions. Don't miss this episode. Angela Mascenik, certified stop over-drinking coach, breaks what it really takes to create lasting change from the inside out with your relationship with alcohol, every week in the Stop Over-drinking and Start Living podcast. If you’re successful, responsible, and “high functioning” on the outside but privately exhausted from managing alcohol in your head, you'll resonate with the helpful tips in this episode to cut back or take a break from alcohol. Click the link to get more info about the Lisbon Magic House:https://www.angelamascenik.com/magichousefounderscircle

Please enjoy this podcast REWIND: I received a great question last week around the fears we have when we think about changing our drinking. Here it is: The biggest fear I have about not drinking is a potential loss of emotional connection with other people. My husband and I have a routine of drinking together, having one of our great, deep conversations. And with other people - I love to connect deeply with people and put them at their ease - and so many people use mutual drinking to do that! I met a friend of mine who’s going through a hard time. I didn’t drink, so she didn’t drink, but it felt like neither of us could quite relax and enjoy ourselves. And with new friends - so often people use mutual drinking with me to let their guards down and get to know each other. I know this is all just an unfortunate part of the drinking culture, but this, I feel, is the biggest barrier to me not socially drinking: the loss of apparent mutual intimacy. This is such a great question. This podcast episode addresses this common fear, how alcohol actually doesn't help build true intimacy, and some ideas on how to start building intimacy without drinking. Enrollment for Alive AF! is open until April 3!Join here → www.angelamascenik.com/aliveaf

[Alive AF! stop over-drinking membership is now open through April 3rd!] www.angelamascenik.com/aliveaf If you’ve been trying to drink less for years; making rules, starting over on Mondays, doing Dry January or “taking a break” and it keeps not working the way you hoped, this episode will help you understand why. For many high-functioning women, drinking didn’t begin as a habit. It began as a response. A response to stress, pressure, loneliness, overstimulation, reward, or simply the need to finally relax at the end of a long day. Over time, that response gets repeated enough that it starts to feel automatic. Like something you don’t fully choose anymore. Like a pattern your brain runs before you even have time to think. In this episode, Angela Mascenik, certified stop over-drinking coach, breaks down how drinking habits actually form, why behavior-based approaches often don’t last, and what it really takes to create lasting change from the inside out. If you’re successful, responsible, and “high functioning” on the outside but privately exhausted from managing alcohol in your head, this conversation will feel very familiar. What you’ll learn in this episode • Why drinking often starts as an emotional or nervous system response  • How the brain builds automatic drinking patterns over time  • The difference between conscious choice and conditioned habit  • Why rules, challenges, and behavior-only approaches don’t always stick  • What it means to work underneath the habit instead of just on top of it  • How learning to feel and process discomfort changes your relationship with alcohol  • What real, sustainable change can look like Ready for deeper support? Alive AF! is Angela’s monthly coaching membership for high-functioning women who want to change their relationship with alcohol in a thoughtful, sustainable, shame-free way. Inside you’ll get coaching, community, workshops, and real tools to help you interrupt old patterns and build new ones. Enrollment is open now through April 3.Join here → www.angelamascenik.com/aliveaf

If you’ve been trying to drink less for years, making rules, cutting back, starting over every Monday, and it still is not sticking, this episode will help you understand why.In this episode, certified stop over-drinking coach Angela Mascenik explains why high-functioning women stay stuck in the drinking cycle even when they are motivated, capable, and successful in other areas of life. You will learn why behavior-based strategies and willpower alone often fail, what is actually happening in your brain when you reach for a drink, and what creates real, lasting change from the inside out.This conversation is for sober curious women who feel mentally exhausted managing their drinking and want a different approach. Angela shares practical insight into how automatic patterns form, why moderation attempts can feel so draining, and how to begin changing your relationship with alcohol without shame, rigid labels, or the pressure to quit forever.If your life looks put together on the outside but you are privately frustrated by your drinking habits, this episode offers clarity, relief, and a new path forward.What we cover in this episode:•  Why willpower and discipline are not the real problem • How high-functioning women develop automatic drinking patterns • What your brain is doing when you reach for alcohol • The hidden mental load of trying to control drinking • Why behavior-only approaches often do not create lasting change • How to start shifting your relationship with alcohol from the inside out SAVE THE DATE, Alive AF! My monthly stop over-drinking online membership opens on March 27th! There are only three spots left for the May Magic House Retreat in Lisbon! Click the link to get more info:https://www.angelamascenik.com/magichousefounderscircle

Have you ever wanted to change your relationship with alcohol but kept waiting for it to feel less hard? In this episode, I get into why so many women know exactly what they want. Better sleep, clearer mornings, freedom from the daily mental negotiation. But still struggle to move forward. Understanding how your brain is wired is really important. We are designed to avoid discomfort and seek pleasure. So you aren't missing willpower or lacking motivation. Real change can't avoid discomfort. The real changes come from it. I talk about why the brain resists change, what the discomfort of early habit shifts actually means, and why sitting with an urge instead of giving in to it is not a sign that something is wrong. It's the process working exactly as it should. I also get into the emotional side of change. The anxiety that doesn't have a quick fix anymore. The boredom. The social awkwardness. The grief of letting something go. These are the things most people aren't prepared for, and why so many women stall out before they ever see results. In this episode, you'll learn: Why the brain treats discomfort as a stop sign and what it actually means Why cravings and emotional restlessness are signs your nervous system is recalibrating The difference between physical and emotional discomfort in early habit change Why waiting until it feels easy is keeping you stuck What it looks like to move through discomfort instead of around it How every woman who has made lasting change did it and what they all have in common If you've ever thought "I'll start when things calm down" or "I just need to find a way that doesn't feel this hard," this episode is for you. This episode is especially helpful for women who are sober curious, questioning their drinking, or ready to stop waiting for change to feel comfortable before they begin. If you’re curious about taking this work to a deeper level, you can book a Clarity Call to learn more about private coaching or the Magic House Retreat in Lisbon.Schedule your call here:https://www.angelamascenik.com/claritycallAnd if the retreat experience is calling you, there are only three spots left for the May Magic House Retreat in Lisbon:https://www.angelamascenik.com/magichousefounderscircle